Narrative:

After dropping my son off; within 5 minutes after takeoff; and climbing through about 2;500 ft and a heading of about 280 degrees; I smelled smoke in the cockpit. I immediately started a left turn back and turned off my avionics master and master switch. I knew there was traffic to my left so I stopped the turn until I acquired the slower traffic. During that time the smoke and smell left the cockpit. At that time I had a decision to make; it's a clear day and the aircraft is running and flying fine; should I continue to head away from a busy airspace to my home airport; or should I possibly make a no radio landing at a busy towered airport. I decided to continue my flight. I then used my compass to head generally west toward my destination. I thought I should let the tower know what was going on since my transponder was off below the class B airspace; and I had started the turn to the south somewhat abruptly. I turned electrical components on one at a time to isolate the problem and report to the tower why I turned and the transponder went off but within 5 minutes I smelled something again so I shut all electrical off. By this time I was outside of the mode C veil and headed back generally west and had more time to navigate back using my ipad and GPS. About this time I noticed several parachutes at about my altitude and about one half mile north of my position and abeam or slightly behind me. I continued the rest of the flight without avionics uneventfully. Did I make the right decision? I'm not sure; the smoke did very much get my attention but that was solved quickly. What bothered me more was that I inadvertently flew into an area where there was parachute activity while trying to solve the electrical problems and did so because of lack of communications.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A M20 developed smoke and fumes after takeoff so the pilot secured all Master Electrical Switches and continued flying spending a short while under Class B Airspace with the transponder OFF.

Narrative: After dropping my son off; within 5 minutes after takeoff; and climbing through about 2;500 FT and a heading of about 280 degrees; I smelled smoke in the cockpit. I immediately started a left turn back and turned off my Avionics master and Master switch. I knew there was traffic to my left so I stopped the turn until I acquired the slower traffic. During that time the smoke and smell left the cockpit. At that time I had a decision to make; it's a clear day and the aircraft is running and flying fine; should I continue to head away from a busy airspace to my home airport; or should I possibly make a no radio landing at a busy towered airport. I decided to continue my flight. I then used my compass to head generally west toward my destination. I thought I should let the Tower know what was going on since my transponder was off below the Class B Airspace; and I had started the turn to the south somewhat abruptly. I turned electrical components on one at a time to isolate the problem and report to the Tower why I turned and the transponder went off but within 5 minutes I smelled something again so I shut all electrical off. By this time I was outside of the Mode C veil and headed back generally west and had more time to navigate back using my iPad and GPS. About this time I noticed several parachutes at about my altitude and about one half mile north of my position and abeam or slightly behind me. I continued the rest of the flight without avionics uneventfully. Did I make the right decision? I'm not sure; the smoke did very much get my attention but that was solved quickly. What bothered me more was that I inadvertently flew into an area where there was parachute activity while trying to solve the electrical problems and did so because of lack of communications.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.